How to Mount a Balcony Awning (2025)
solar.lowtechmagazine.com46 points by karakoram 5 days ago
46 points by karakoram 5 days ago
A quick tip: with more than (3) anchor points, make your anchor positions non-planar. This imparts a constant curvature and thus constant tension on the membrane and goes a long way to stabilize its position in moderate to heavy winds. Or less flapping.
I have always wondered why awnings and similar covers aren't used more to shade buildings and keep them cool. It seems like the investment should pay itself off in reduced energy expenditures relatively rapidly.
Technology Connections on Awnings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhbDfi7Ee7k
Small ones like this may be fine, but buildings (especially old ones) may have surprisingly small margin for extra wind load laterally. What seems like a cheap option could require an expensive structural analysis, or an even more expensive later repair.
Awnings used to be everywhere on brick buildings with no wind load problem. You can still see where awnings were meant to go on many old (early twentieth century) buildings. Air conditioning, not wind load, killed the awning. https://thecraftsmanblog.com/why-dont-we-use-awnings-anymore...
[dead]